


Sleeping in Toasters

by Waldo



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e01 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-08
Updated: 2008-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waldo/pseuds/Waldo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He knew there were so many thousands of reasons that he should be so furious with Jack that he shouldn't even want to look at him, let alone touch him or be touched by him. He finally understood what the expression 'fool for love' meant."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping in Toasters

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/scifinut/profile)[**scifinut**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/scifinut/) for the quick beta and for pronouncing this thing readable.  She will also attest that I wrote the story first and then found this ridiculously appropriate quote.

_"If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters." _  
(Unknown)

 

Ianto came awake with a subtle jolt. His alarm hadn't gone off. It was clearly daylight outside his window and he was still buried in the covers; warm, comfortable and despite the extra sleep, drowsy. He rolled to his back to check the clock and his arm fell across a warm body that let out a quiet 'oof', but didn't otherwise seem to object.

Memories flooded Ianto's mind, all scrambling and screaming for prominence. A blowfish in a car, in an apartment, taunting him. Jack saving him from having to decide whether or not he could hit the ridiculous-looking alien without hitting the girl first. Jack was back. That poof in the red coat and blond hair that couldn't decide if he was Steve McQueen or just a total queen. Jack was back.

They'd come back to Ianto's flat for the night in order avoid their other selves at the hub. Jack had unplugged the alarm clock (despite Ianto's protests that simply turning it off would be sufficient, given that it was fairly old and a pain in the arse to reset) to demonstrate that he really, really wanted them both to sleep in.

Ianto let all the tension that had been coiling in him out with a sigh and turned to study Jack in the streaming sunlight. He was only slightly surprised to see Jack looking back at him. He knew there were so many thousands of reasons that he should be so furious with Jack that he shouldn't even want to look at him, let alone touch him or be touched by him. He finally understood what the expression 'fool for love' meant. Gwen had even pulled him aside as they'd left the carpark, telling him that even if he let Jack into his flat for the night, he should think twice before letting him back into his heart. But as they'd sat in the SUV and then later on his sofa, Ianto could tell that there was something Very Wrong in Jack's mind. Wherever he'd been – and knowing Jack, 'whenever' he'd been - something had gone very badly and while Jack would never scar on the outside, there were very obvious, very deep, very painful scars on the inside. Ianto had made a couple of gentle inquiries designed to see if Jack would talk, but he'd been answered with smiles that never reached Jack's eyes and reassurances that he was fine, if a little tired. So Ianto had led them first to the shower and then to bed.

Jack held up an arm and Ianto rolled over and buried his face in Jack's shoulder. He should be livid. He should want to beat Jack into his next life. Jack had given no explanations, no reasons other than he'd found 'his Doctor'. And Ianto knew that shouldn't be good enough. And yet, at least for the moment, now that Jack was back, it was. He felt his eyes close as Jack's arm wrapped around his waist and he was pulled in close. He should want to shove Jack back on his bare ass until he hit the cold hard-wood floors. His own arm wrapped around Jack's shoulder and he held on to the warm skin.

"You okay?" Jack asked, his breath against Ianto's ear.

Ianto nodded, not ready to speak.

They lay there for long enough that Ianto could feel the rays of sunlight moving from somewhere near his hip to closer to his neck. Jack seemed content to lie there and hold him. Ianto was still sleepy enough to let him.

It had to be nearing ten a.m. when Ianto stirred again. "Still here, then?" he asked through a yawn.

He'd meant it to be flip – that Jack and his disuse for sleep would have normally had him downstairs watching telly or making breakfast before Ianto woke. But it wasn't until after he'd said it that he realized how Jack would take it. "I mean… usually you go downstairs…"

Jack squeezed him. "I know what you meant." His tone of voice left Ianto completely unsure of the truth of that statement.

Jack shifted, pulling Ianto over on top of him. "I wanted to be here when you woke. I wanted you to know I was still here."

Ianto snuggled into his new position, lying fully on top of Jack, his head tucked under Jack's chin. "Thank you." He wasn't sure what else to say. He'd woken up having completely forgotten about the last eighteen hours and the assault of those memories had left him reeling now that he had time to process them.

They lay quietly for another few minutes before Ianto felt compelled to ask. "He's really gone, then? That psychotic piece of work you call a boyfriend?" He rolled his eyes, gratefully Jack couldn't actually see his face. He really needed to stop speaking before he was fully awake.

Fortunately, Ianto could feel Jack chuckle under his cheek.

"_You_," Jack said pointedly, "Are the only one I call a boyfriend."

Ianto squeezed him. Jack had called him that exactly once before he'd left. They'd run into someone Jack knew while out for a drink. Apparently this Jeff fellow was either a past conquest or someone who knew Jack's reputation and lived in hope and Jack had been quite blunt while introducing his _boyfriend_ to him and getting him to leave them alone. At first Ianto had been a bit giddy that Jack was willing to attach that level of commitment to what they had, but the next morning he'd woken up wondering if it was simply a case of saying whatever it took to get Jeff to go on his way. Jack had never used the term, or any like it, again and then he'd disappeared for several months and Ianto had forced himself to accept that Jack hadn't meant it after all.

He wondered if he meant it now. In his still sleep-fuzzy mind he decided that he'd accept it for now and grill Jack about it, subtly, later.

"And yes," Jack added a long minute later. "He's gone."

Jack didn't say it, but Ianto could sense the "for now" in Jack's tone. It would have to do.

They lay there for a few more minutes before Ianto stretched, relishing in the feeling of his skin sliding against Jack's for the first time in far too long. "Coffee?" he asked as he let himself sprawl bonelessly across Jack once more.

"You get the coffee, I get the toast," Jack told him, a note of questioning in his voice. As if he knew this was the routine when they were together, but it had been so long since they'd practiced it, he wasn't sure if there'd been a change.

Ianto slid to the floor, stretching again as he made his way to the closet for jeans and a jumper. "Right then. Try not to set off the smoke detector today, would you?"

Jack laughed. It was probably the first time he'd laughed in a year. The memory of the last time he'd made the toast – of them getting distracted by sex against the kitchen bench, and the toaster picking exactly the wrong day to malfunction. He remembered Ianto's neighbor from the other half of the duplex almost breaking down the door thinking that the smoke and the gasping had meant someone was dying. And then there had been the 999 call and they'd had to explain it all to the very new policewoman who hadn't expected to be greeted by a mostly naked man, while another fumbled into his clothes behind him in the kitchen – dressing with one hand and trying to put out a toaster fire with the other.

He remembered smiling at her as she used her collar radio to call off the fire brigade. "I knew my boyfriend was hot, but I guess this takes it to a whole new level, eh?" He'd winked at her and she'd blushed furiously before stumbling back out.

Jack pulled his own clothes off the chair where Ianto had thoughtfully put them the night before when he'd been content to leave them on the bathroom floor. "Maybe we should have sex against the bench and _then_ make the toast, then," Jack suggested to Ianto's retreating back.

Ianto didn't turn back, but he did stop. "Not until after that date."

Jack grinned as he pulled on his socks. Okay, maybe not completely forgiven yet. But well on the way.


End file.
